Grayson and Wilson
by O'Tooley
Summary: Dick Grayson battles against one of his oldest foes in his career as Nightwing, Deathstroke. But why would Deathstroke come to Gotham for Nightwings head? Nightwing must find out if one of his toughest enemies wants him dead for money, or just for sport.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters portrayed, this fanfiction is based on the universe and characters of DC comics.

* * *

Dick woke up to a piercing sound, it instantly annoyed him, a lot of responsibilities comes from respected vigilantism, and Dick at heart was a soft man. Six foot tall, one hundred and seventy five pounds of muscle, he was strong, fast and precise. He was terrifying as Nightwing, his voice was gravelled from his days as Batman, his body scratched and riddled with bullet holes and healed broken bones, and a couple of ribs that haven't quite set. He was tough, his family knew it, his enemies knew it, but this morning, he wasn't tough, he was tired and a little grumpy and that alarm wasn't helping. It was a long night when Scarecrow decides to resume his experiments on live animals.

Right on time there was a knock on the door, and the alarm was still screaming, just as his cell phone started singing its tuneful alarm getting louder every three seconds. Suddenly Dick was angry with all the noise, he yelled and in his hazy sleep deprived state he managed to fumble the alarms off. He trudged to the door grumbling all the way and opened it to see a familiar red head in a leather jacket, jeans and boots waiting half patiently, half amused.

'Thank God,' Dick exhaled

'You look like crap,' said Barbara, ever the poet, she smiled and walked past Dick into his loft apartment. 'You ok?'

'Hmm' Dick grumbled, 'Long night, Professor Crane got some new pets, dogs and birds, nothing I couldn't handle' he winced due to his ribs, Barbara noticed.

'What's wrong with you? The good doctor looked at your ribs?'

'Of course he didn't. Couple nights ago, outside a bar, guy tried to have his way with a woman and I felt he didn't say pretty please, he pulled a gun out I didn't notice, thank god for nomex'

Barbara nodded, she didn't need to ask how it went, if the vic had died he would be quiet, thoughtful, guilty, if the guy had escaped he'd be angry, and if the guy won Dick wouldn't be here. Reasonable responses for each situation. But Dick was here, a little grumpy, but there was a lot of noise when Barbara got here.

'Coffee?' Dick offered,

'Sure,' Dick poured coffee into a big mug, for himself, offered up a matching cup to her, both an offer and a question, _you staying long?_ Barbara hesitated and nodded, she hadn't seen Dick in a long time and he hadn't smiled yet, and she wasn't overly busy, though she did come for a reason. Dick set down her mug in front of her, and asked 'So why are you here? I'm expecting a call from Bruce, so-'

'Well that's partly why I'm here, Bruce had to go away, he knew you were sleeping after Scarecrow, so he asked me to call, thought I'd come tell you, he has to go away with the League, some stuff Green Lantern accidentally screwed up in Khandaq or something. So of course Black Adam's pissed out of his mind at the rest of the world.'

'Of course, so we gotta look after Gotham for a few days?'

'Or weeks, if nothing else comes up. I called Tim he's on his way home he can help, Damian's at the manor Bruce gave him strict instructions to stay at home'

'Can't wait to see him out on patrol then,'

Barbara giggled, Dick smiled, she immediately smiled back, it had been a few weeks since they've seen each other, crime fighting takes up social life time, she leant in and kissed him, he reached his hand around the back of her neck and held tight, he had missed her.

'Shower.' Babs ordered,

'Excellent decision' Dick replied, he walked into the bathroom, and took off his shirt and boxers, he caught himself in the mirror, he looked awful, dark circles under his eyes, hair everywhere, all across his face, a beard coming on, bite marks on his arms, purple red and blue bruises here and there and a couple of yellow ones healing, slowly. He shaved and showered, showers often feel calming, cleansing, this one hurt, no matter the temperature, it stung.

He came out in a towel, got dressed and poured another mug of coffee, he noticed Barbara had refilled her mug, she was staying for a while.

'How've you been?' he asked tentatively, there were rumours of the Joker resurfacing, Harley had "broken out" of Amanda Waller's super prison Belle Reve, usually when Harley is out and about Joker is soon to follow, a terrifying co dependant couple.

'Fine, you heard about Joker? I heard the Red Hood was tearing down places he had been, even though he's only rumoured to be back'

'Jason?' Dick exclaimed, 'Usually he only goes after solid leads, he's not on any killing spree I need to stop is he?'

'No, no he's fine, Dick you gotta cut him a little slack the Joker _killed _him, Ra's brought him back and Joker was still around, even I've wanted to kill him especially what he did to us all last year and under the caves.'

'Yeah I get that, I do, but he shouldn't go around killing people following a whisper of Joker, I understand, I even kind of _understand_, but as soon as innocents die I need to step in'

'Name one time he's killed an innocent person'

'Alright, alright.'

Barbara always understood Jason when he came back, they never got on too well when he was Robin. Kids. As soon as they learn to punch they think they're invincible, especially with the big bad Batman behind them, Dick was exactly the same even if he would never admit it. People die, but people don't come back, but when you add a Lazarus pit, it causes insanity from a few days to a few years. Luckily it only lasted a few months for Jason. But he was darker when he came out, he died because he cared, his emotions got the better of him and the Joker caught him, beat him, and killed him.

Barbara thought Jason must be so incredibly lonely. She understood Jason's hatred, Joker crippled her for years, the only way she could walk again was thanks to time, persistence, and Bruce. He had researched into spines among other things, his own back was broken by Bane a few years ago, back when Tim was Robin. He had funded the best treatment by the best Doctors, and three years after the bullet tore through her abdomen and lodged into her lower spine, it was removed, nine months later and she was weakly standing. And now, she was back to Batgirl.

Barbara thought for a moment, 'I'll get in touch with Jason, see what whispers he's found,' she started typing a text for Jason,

Dick nodded, he was tired, he would have agreed to pretty much anything.

A few hours later Barbara's phone vibrated, she looked at it and her soft expression became stern, 'now this could be problematic, apparently Wilson might be back'

'Slade?' Dick replied,

'Mm-hmm, Jason found a couple of his assassins a couple blocks from here actually-' she stopped mid-sentence, Dick made the connection too, if Slade Wilson, Deathstroke, was back and a couple of his personal assassins were close to Dick Graysons apartment in Gotham City, then there was a very likely chance they were on their way to kill Dick Grayson. They both dropped to the floor as the glass shattered and wind howled into the room, the counter where Dick was leaning exploded, _big bullet, how flattering, _Dick thought.

The two crawled to the bedroom where their uniforms were, and a handy panic room was installed to change. Once they were battle ready they made a quick assessment, Dick said, 'if it's Deathstroke shooting, he'll want to conserve ammo, he won't shoot if there's a chance he'll miss.'

'And if he had a group of assassins coming for us then there's likely to be more maybe a ground team, so that might not be him, just a wary foot soldier' Barbara added,

'So we have two solid facts. Someone just ruined my counter top with a large gun and large bullet. And Deathstroke is a thing.'

'Yeah, there may be more snipers, there may be people coming, or there's Deathstroke himself coming, they could be outside this panic room waiting to shoot us, or they could have broken down on the way here, or sprained their ankles, the possibilities are endless.'

'I hope Batman hasn't bugged this room he'd hate to hear us like this'

'Shall we?' Barbara smiled,

Dick sighed, opened the door and burst through, if anyone had come in the house alarm would have been blaring. But Dick didn't want to have any extra holes in him, hence the speed. _Who knows, maybe the assassin only brought one bullet? A man can dream…_


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters portrayed, this fanfiction is based on the universe and characters of DC comics.

* * *

Dick leapt out of the small panic room, his eyes scanning the room first, _no immediate bad guys,_ then his eyes moved to the window for a moment, quickly looking for any flare of glass where there shouldn't be. But the sun was beginning to set, he was blinded. _Clever, the sun is in my eyes, concealing the shooter, terrific._

Barbara followed, Dick was flat on the floor by the door, expecting more gunshots, he needed to gauge where the shooter was. Barbara saw Dick thinking, and stood still for half a second in full view of the window. She was being bait. Then suddenly she too dropped to the floor, just as a second bullet sliced through her hair. Red strands followed her to the floor.

Dick's mask quickly analysed the bullet hole in the glass, for some reason the glass was still intact, _angled._ His vision turned to 'Detective vision' as Bruce calls it. It mapped out the trajectory of the bullet path and it was an angled shot. _One window smashed, must have been more of an angle? This one had less of an angle, hence the hole. Close range._

Barbara had crawled to him and Dick explained his thoughts, she agreed, and then they both believed the best course of action was escape. Without bullet holes if at all possible.

They crawled out of the bedroom to the living room, and Dick pulled down the blinds across the window. They were a dark silver, with the setting sun against it the shooter would be blinded. The two crime fighters relaxed a little, and as expected they heard scuffling of feet outside the door, they had visitors.

They had merely seconds before the room was breached by an undetermined number of professional killers, but Dick still had some security systems installed. Barbara and Dick took cover, Dick behind the sofa near the window, Barbara opened the refrigerator door and slid against it.

They waited. And the door swung open with a crash.

The family didn't often do much together, other than fight crime occasionally, but one thing they did do was paintballing. Something about guns without bullets made them seem much more fun. Bruce was almost semi uncomfortable, Damian and Jason felt right at home, as did Alfred surprisingly, Barbara too, her dad was a cop. Dick however didn't enjoy the shooting and hoping strategy that Tim adopted, he enjoyed using his acrobatics to always be above the family and "shoot bats in a barrel". He usually did extremely well.

Dick had kept four paintball guns. He had modified them, and primed them into semi-automatic paintball guns, and placed them in the space above the ceiling, aimed them down, two at the door, one left of the door, and one right. The guns would fire due to an electric charge, which were routed into two different light switches, either side of the bedroom door. Dick was right in front of one, and he flipped the switch, heard popping and jolted screams, followed by coughing. When the coughing started Nightwing and Batgirl emerged and attacked, their objective was now immobilising the assailants with no gun shots, it only takes one badly placed bullet to kill, and neither wanted to endanger a life of another tenant in the building. Nightwing saw Batgirl out of the corner of his eye, he had taken out one escrima stick, and turned on the stun charge. His plan was broken wrists, and knockout stuns. He counted six bad guys, all armed with rifles, zero handguns or knives. Odd. Easy.

Dick charged through one in a tackle, winding him and knocking him to the ground, the other two had realised what was happening and were turning to him, Nightwing clasped his stick and lunged right, stabbing the stick to the man's neck, right against the jugular, the stick gave a harsh hiss as the electric current passed into skin against nerve and muscle. He didn't pierce the skin, but it would bruise, and swell, and hurt. The merc folded over, clutching his neck. _Clearly not used to pain, not a pro._

He leapfrogged over the falling mercenary and caught the final hired gun's assault rifle in his left hand, he pivoted right and the weapon fell from the man's hands. _Really not a pro,_ Dick smiled.

He relaxed, and heard a horrific crack from behind. And then a sigh. He turned and saw Batgirl standing over her victims. She looked at Nightwing, and lifted her chin. _Behind you…_

Dick took two paces forward just as the mercenarys fist swung past his head. He turned and lifted his left leg, turned, and forced it hard into the stomach of the guy. Batgirl stepped towards them, she had seen the winded "soldier" regaining his breath and she stomped on his knee. Another terrible crash and a scream. And the soldier lost consciousness.

It all took about fifteen seconds.

Dick smiled at Barbara, she smiled back. Her eyes were stunning. Her lips were cracked, as were his. But to him they looked perfect.

They both turned to the only conscious member of the assault team. Batgirl moved the guns further from the sleeping bodies, Nightwing turned the stun off his stick. Batgirl picked up the closest gun and covered the hallway, no need for more surprises. Nightwing grabbed the would-be assassins Kevlar vest and dragged him to the door, tapped Batgirls shoulder, she nodded and moved forward as Nightwing followed.

She lead him to the stairs at the end of the hall, Nightwing had holstered his stick and pressed a button on his wrist, his heads up display in his mask had a waving line along the top, and he spoke clearly 'Lockdown.' He heard a slam as his panic room door closed and bolted, a sliding wall would pass over the door and anyone who would come to the apartment would look in the bedroom and disregard it all.

His masks vision went back to normal. He checked his new captive, _really? Unconscious? I didn't even hit him hard_.

They went up the stairs to the roof, slowly, carefully, Barbara had the safety catch on, the gun wouldn't be firing, but appearance is everything, and her thumb was right next to the catch for warning shots. She flicked her head down and revealed her newest toy, a clear band to go over her eyes, and act as her own HUD and detective vision, as a bat she has a screen on her forearm, but sometimes it's easier to work with what you can see. She activated her thermal vision and blurry lumps of orange appeared against the walls, all different sizes but pretty much all the same shape. She flicked her head up and it deactivated. No use.

They reached the roof door and Batgirl flipped the safety of the rifle off. Much less chance of hitting an innocent here. Nightwing tapped her shoulder again and she opened the door slowly, they walked out and scanned the rooftop, and Nightwing checked the other buildings, he lived here for the height of the building, it was one of the tallest in the area, it would take Deathstroke himself to hit any of them with a sniper from the buildings of the business district. Maybe. With no wind at all and a clear day. And the buildings around them were below them, but to be safe they moved to the east, so that sniper couldn't see or reach them, and if there were any others they'd see a glint.

The soldier was waking up, but everything was odd, his head felt funny, like head rush but it hurt. He felt light. As if he was falling but not moving. He took a moment to enjoy the bliss of ignorance. And then he tried to move, and he realised his predicament. He was hanging upside down over the ledge of a rooftop.

Terror took over, panic and adrenaline surging he looked down at his body and saw a black and blue silhouette. And he was waving at him. And a horned black outline next to him, smaller, but terrifying.

Barbara asked the question with the most obvious answer, 'Who do you work for?'

The soldier just whimpered, and his crotch darkened, spreading over his lap and presumably up his body.

Barbara sighed. Dick smiled. 'Who do you work for?' She repeated, but louder, there was more blood in his head, his ears could be ringing.

'D-deathstroke! Please don't kill me I don't want to die!' he screamed,

'What the hell,' Dick muttered, 'these guys are awful, they go in without backup, only rifles no side arms, not even knives, barely trained, and now they have bad intel, they should know we don't kill especially if they work for Slade.'

Barbara nodded thoughtfully, something definitely wasn't right. The screaming man was still pleading below them. They looked down at him and decided to bring him up and relieve what must be a screaming headache.

Dick started lifting and suddenly it felt a little lighter, as the man's head below burst. In a split second the man was crying out and then one side of his face was shrouded in red mist. Dicks eyes widened as Barbara grabbed him and ran, they both ran hard for the south side and pulled out their grapnels, they leapt off and fired to swing out to the Bat Bunker beneath Wayne Towers.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters portrayed, this fanfiction is based on the universe and characters of DC comics.

* * *

The shot had to be perfect. The rifle steady. The shooter fast but relaxed, too tense and a muscle can fail and compromise the shot, and at this great distance a steady base is crucial. There was a slight breeze but it was steady. Easy to compensate, as long as there weren't any rogue winds. The shooter could have hit his target no problem, but not a perfect through and through headshot on a windy day.

Deathstroke stood up from the window, he looked down the scope again, he marvelled in his master shooting.

He looked around at the view of Gotham and reminisced. He always enjoyed jobs here, the police were terrible and he never had to worry about an escape, they often saw the work of an assassin and shrugged with their thumbs up their asses, leaving it to the Bat. And the Bat was one to avoid, unless he was out of town.

Slade Wilson smiled. He packed away his rifle. And left. Stage one of the plan was complete.

Dick had recovered, it was never easy watching someone die, and this was a surprise. He and Barbara had reached the Bat bunker, Barbara took off her cowl and Dick took off his mask. He took off his gloves and ran his fingers through his hair. It was a comfort thing. He sat down in front of a work bench, Barbara leaned against the table and they waited in silence thinking.

'What now?' Dick asked,

Barbara shrugged, 'Find Jason? Hope he hasn't killed those assassins?'

'Sure, get in touch,' Barbara sent the message, Dick said 'the problem with Deathstroke is there could be no need for this, yeah he doesn't like me but there could be no reason for this compulsion. No plot, no scheme, just random precise attacks until we stop him.'

'Hm.' Barbara agreed. From what she'd heard about him he was calculating, tactical and almost unpredictable. She had never dealt with him directly. Not like Dick has. Deathstroke never did anything without a reason and yet he never had a good enough reason for doing anything he did. The reasons were only valid to Slade, Dick never truly understood Slade. It was like a cat person explaining why dogs are terrible to a dog person.

The lights above them flickered. Barbara and Dicks heads shot up, this was a state of the art bunker, filled with extremely expensive and elaborate crime fighting weaponry. The lights don't flicker. But one by one they all started flickering, some were frantic, the others slow, some intermittently. Barbara pulled her cowl back on, Dick threw his mask and gloves on, they crossed the room and looked at the Bat computer, they checked the security systems. _Offline. _This was Bruce Wayne's building, the security systems are never offline. The lights went out, the room was engulfed in darkness, the computer screens had even gone out. Somehow the impossible was happening.

They heard a cheery _Ding!_ And they both turned to wear the elevator was across the room, they didn't see anything so they tried turning on their night vision, but it wasn't responding. _EMP? Somewhere in the room, it hadn't reached the elevator._

A fist flew from the darkness, Dick saw it too late and it crashed against his jaw hard, he stepped back and dodged left. By pure luck he had dodged a bullet as a gun fired right where his head had been, the muzzle flash showed Deathstroke standing in front of him, one gun in his left hand and a sword in his right.

Dick sensed what Slade was going to do next, and he threw himself left, narrowly missing an incoming blade swiping up. Dick and Barbara shot themselves forwards, again Slade opened fire and the muzzle flash helped him track them, but Dick had started moving towards Slade.

_Faster._ Dick thought. His mind was racing, he ran hard and low, bullets were flying through his hair, he was distracting Slade while Barbara flanked him. The computer screens were flickering back to life, causing a strobe light effect, Dick knocked the gun from Slade's hand and took out both of his escrima sticks, he started attacking, precisely, perfectly.

Barbara leapt up high above the men, she came down and struck her knee into the back of Slade's head, he folded forwards as Dick grabbed his neck and thrust his knee into Slade's helmet. It was a hard hit, clearly it did damage, the helmet cracked, shards of it were cast across the floor. Slade brought his sword up as Dick dodged back, narrowly missing the razor sharp blade, and carried on throwing his arms and body back, his hands landed on the floor behind him as he raised his legs into a kick against Slade's chin. Slade turned round to take another kick from Batgirl, Slade spun and slashed out, he caught Barbara's stomach, it pierced the nomex in her suit and cut along her flesh. She winced and her knees faltered.

Dick saw, _deep cut_, _she wouldn't fall if it wasn't serious_. And so Dick Grayson became angry.

Adrenaline surged, he saw targets, ribs, lungs, neck, head, eye, knees, nerve clusters, spine. He attacked furiously, he parried incoming attacks, he stabbed and slashed his sticks into the separations in Slade's armour, he struck an elbow into Slade's remaining eye, causing him to step back and cower, _he's blinded, perfect._

Slade slashed out and Dick grabbed the blade and pivoted back so the sword fell from his hand. Dick spun and kicked behind landing his foot in Slade's knee at an angle. Slade fell on his knee, Dick continued to spin and kicked Slade hard in the head with his left shin. A perfect roundhouse. Slade fell to the floor, he wasn't moving. He may have been dead, Dick didn't care.

Dick ran to Barbara, she was bleeding. He needed to help her, he lifted her and carried her to one of the Batmobiles. 'Dick, no.' Barbara said.

Dick gave a puzzled look. 'You need to stay,' Barbara said, 'the car can take me to the cave on auto but you need to stay here with him, he can't be left alone here.'

Dick pondered a moment, and nodded. He kissed her on the lips and said 'Tell me when you get there. And don't die.'

Barbara smiled and Dick closed the door, a few moments later the car started and rolled away.

Dick turned to Slade's body on the floor. _This all seems.._. _off._ He moved towards Slade and the computers to his left came alive, the only source of light in the room. It held a steady light and showed Slade's face. It said 'Sorry kid, I wanted you dead, and when's the best time to kill someone? After they think they've won.'

And the screen died. Darkness took over again.


End file.
